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About Me

I am a farmer's wife,runner and a mother of two boys. I help my husband with our farming business. I did my first marathon in October 2010 and loved every minute of it. I'm now looking to do my 4th marathon in Little Rock, AR

Monday, October 29, 2012

Going into this half marathon, I had no expectations. Harvest came early this year and my long runs in September were pretty non-existent. My running partner had gotten a few 10 milers in, but lacked on her short runs. So what was our goal for Sunday? Our goal was to do the best that we could and have a lot of fun running the IMT Des Moines Half.

When I left the house I looked at my I pod nano and their was an arrow pointing to the battery icon, Go Figure Not Now. Their was no way I had time to plug it in now, so I was just hoping it was going to work during the half.

It's 20 minutes before the race starts and we are moving to our corral. I turned on my nano and got one song and than nothing. My thoughts were I can't run without music. I've ran 3 miles, but not a half marathon without music. This was going to be one heck of a long run. I told Tree, my nano just died and we might be talking a lot more than normal. So the gun goes off and we start to move up the street to the starting line. I turned my garmin on about 45 min before the race started hoping it would sync up. The race starts in downtown Des Moines and their is a lot of tall building all around us. So, needless to say when I went over the starting mat , I hit start on my garmin and noticed it didn't sync up. So, I'm trying to get it to sync as I'm running. I'm in no way a multi tasker. Finally I got it to sync up about .25 mile into the race. That sure keep my mind off of not running with music.

Me and Tree waiting for the race to start

Mile 1-3 We run downtown Des Moines making our way to Water Works Park. I was feeling pretty good. We just got into Water Works park and my bladder is telling me we need a potty break. I told Tree if those Kybos up a ways are full I'm finding some ground to pee on. The Kybos were full I just went behind them and squatted, by this time I was going to pee my pants anyway. Shoot, I should of tried to go one more time before the race started. I normally dont have to use the Kybos,but not today. Mile 4-6 I was feeling real good. I remember at mile 6, it felt like my legs just new what to do and it felt effortless to run. Between miles 5-6, I was trying to pick up the pace, because I was feeling so good. Now, my running partner on the other hand was not feeling the same way.

Mile 7-9 I was still feeling good, so I was just trying to keep a steady pace, but my running partner was struggling.

Mile 10 -13.1 I felt like I had this race I could do it and get a good time, but my running partner was struggling as we hit Gray's Lake. As much as I wanted this race, nothing was more important to me than making sure Tree was going to make it to the finish. So, we started doing a walk/run. We ended up doing a walk/run to the finish line. As we turned the corner to the finish line, Tree face was getting paler and her breathing was going very fast for her. I kept telling her to breath through nose and out her mouth. I think she was hyperventilating. I just kept telling her to breath through her nose and out her mouth, so she could get her breathing under control. We finally crossed the finish line and got our medals and headed for some water and Ibuprofen. Tree just said she had a spitting headache.

CROSSING THE FINISH LINE YAHOO

After we got some chocolate milk and Ibuprofen in us , we headed to the car to get into something dry and warm. We also got our signs that we made for Amanda and Steph that were running the marathon. We found some Kybos around mile 25, and decided that was as good as any place to plant our butts and wait. We had so much fun cheering on the runners as we were waiting for Steph and Amanda. We held the signs up and were cheering them on as they ran by us. When we caught up to them at the end. Amanda said she had never had someone at a race to cheer her on and she said it brought tears to her eyes. Steph said they were struggling to make it to the stop light were they turn the corner to the finish line. We gave them that extra motivation they need to finish this marathon. This was Amanda's 2nd and Steph 10th marathon.

Stephanie and Amanda on the last mile

Amanda and Stephanie

Amanda,Me,Tree,Stephanie and Rachelle

This was Ashten and James first Half Marathon. They had an awesome finish. Jason and Julene, this was their first Marathon. Julene was pretty nervous going into this marathon. She hadn't gotten all her long runs in, due to sickness in the family. We walked back to Gray's Lake to bring her and Jay in. Jay was ready to run to the finish, but Julene was pretty tired. So we let Jay take off to the finish and we walked with Julene. When Julene saw the finish line banner, she was able to run it in. I'm so proud of, all these guys. They did an awesome job.

James,Asthen,Julene and Jason

My next race is the Living History Farm Race November 17, 2012

Do you remember how you felt when you crossed the finish line to your first Half or Full Marathon?

Thursday, October 18, 2012

We started harvesting about the second week of September, that is pretty early for us. We normally don't start till around the first week in October. We new going into harvest it was going to be a hard one. We were farming more land and the boys were both going to college. Thank goodness Parker was going to a community college and living in Des Moines which is only about 20 miles away from home. Parker was able to come home on the weekends and help with harvest. It's been a very long harvest, normally we would have some raining days and than we could get caught up on all the paper work and the bills, Not this year. The bills, they never stop just because your in the field.. We didn't have one rain day the whole harvest, so that meant that we had to do the paper work or bills when we got in for the night. Most nights we were out to around 10 pm or later. One night we didn't get to bed till 2:30 in the morning, because we were at the field that is about 9 miles from our home, it's the farthest farm away from our home that we own. We finished this field around 11 pm and hubby wanted to get every thing moved back closer to home. Moving equipment from farm to farm doesn't just take 30 minutes it can literally take anywhere from 15 min to 2 hours, just depending on where the farm is from where you have to move all the equipment. I was pretty tired the next day, but we still had to get up early get chores done and get the equipment moved to the next field so we could get started for that day. Harvest has taken toll on my good eating habits and my workout/ running schedule.YAHOO BABY! We finally got done Oct, 9, thank GOD. I love my hubby, but things can get kind of intense sometimes when we are trying to get the crop in. I understand why he gets stressed and I usually do really well with keeping it together for him and me, but this year with not having any rain days and staying up late, it was taking a toil on both of us.

Last year at the Farm Progress Show I saw this Pink John Deere Hat. I told my hubby that a farmers wife should have a Pink John Deer hat to help on the farm. So, when I got home one day from working at the Insurance Company what was sitting on the island in my kitchen. It was a Pink John Deere Hat. YAHOO!

I was able to do the Color Run 5k a week or so ago. It was just what the DOCTOR ordered for me. My stress level was rising and I needed to just go run and have some fun. It was pretty chilly the day of the race. The race didn't start till 1,but we wanted to get there early so we could get a good place to park and line up. We lucky enough to get into the first wave. As we were running up the long hill to the finish line we went by all the runners that were still waiting for their wave to start. Their was a Hell of a lot of people at this race.

Tree, Me and Liz . Waiting for race

Liz,Tree and Me. Were all lined up and having a little fun wasting time.

We made it . It was a great time. Just what the Doctor ordered for me. Some running and having fun with some great girls.

The trees that line our driveway are finally turning, they're pear trees. They seem to always be the last tree to turn into it beautiful fall colors. I like to sit in my hubbies office an look out the window at the beautiful colors of all the trees this time of year.

I was finally able to get back to Nxtbend Fitness and workout with my Nxtbend buddies. OH, how I've missed them. I feel like since harvest my body has went to pot. It's funny how it seem to take a long time to get your body into shape,but not a long time for it to turn to jello. I've got some Major work to do.

This Sunday I'm running the IMT Des Moines Half Marathon. Am I well trained or ready for it, NOT. I'll do my best and have a heck of a lot of fun doing it. Normally I'm able to train without to much of a problem, but this year with harvest earlier it made it a lot harder to keep up with my running schedule. I knew it would be hard with both boys away at college, but I didn't think it would take away time from my running time. You never know what to expect from year to year when it comes to farming. I've had to learn to go with the flow. However, I'm very lucky to have amazing running partners, that totally get when harvest comes around I might not make a run here and there. So glad I didn't sign up for the Full this year. How has your fall been? Have you ever done the Color Run 5k